“Unfortunate timing” for Play School’s underwater adventure
Aussie children’s show Play School has prompted debate online after airing an episode focussed on the underwater adventure of two characters.
The episode, while harmless enough on its own, caused eyebrows to raise over its timing - with ABC airing the content in the wake of the Titanic-bound Titan submersible’s implosion.
The segment in question, titled ‘Sea and Space: 2’, saw characters Jemima and Kiya dive deep to the ocean’s “cold and dark” midnight zone at the hands of hosts Kaeng and Rachel.
Rachel was delighted to inform audiences that the dolls were “going to the bottom of the sea”, with a close-up shot showcasing the dolls’ descent in their submarine-like prop vessel.
“They’ve made it all the way to the bottom of the sea floor,” Rachel went on to share, before revealing that it was “very dark” down there, and wondering whether or not the explorers would get to see any creatures.
After taking a look around, Rachel sang about how “two explorers went to sea sea sea to see what they could see see see see, but all that they could see see see was …”
Rachel’s fellow host, Kaeng, got involved then to show off a torch fish, and the dolls had the opportunity to check out a whole host of deep-sea creatures along with another few verses of the song.
But that wasn’t the end of it, with some concerned viewers taking issue with the timing of the episode, and taking to social media to share their thoughts with like-minded users.
One Reddit user shared a clip from the episode, noting that it was “bad timing for the scheduling this morning.”
Another shared a screenshot from the same segment, writing that the show was “trolling with an episode this morning about submarines”.
“OMG I saw this and thought the same,” one shared.
“Disgusting!” someone else declared.
“Play School just rubbing it in! How vicious,” another said.
However, others were not so quick to condemn the network, instead suggesting that the episode - and Play School’s schedule - had been planned out months beforehand, and the timing was not intentional, just unfortunate.
“Not sure this was a fresh episode probably just an unaware scheduled repeat,” one wrote.
"Unfortunate timing for this morning's Play School broadcast," someone thought.
And as another put it, “you do realise how far in advance these are filmed and scheduled, right?”
And while social media had had plenty to offer, a spokesperson for ABC confirmed to news.com.au that they’d so far received no complaints over the episode.
Images: Play School / ABC